Passengers have been warned rail misery will ramp up over the festive period, with London NorthWestern Railway urging people to avoid trains from Christmas Eve to 2 January and Great Western Railway telling passengers not to bring “massive suitcases” because of reduced services and seats.
The performance of firms including Avanti, Northern and CrossCountry has come under fierce criticism over the past 12 months, with all three having been criticised by the new Labour government over “unacceptable” delays and cancellations.
Avanti – which operates the West Coast Main Line between London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow – part-cancelled or fully cancelled 8,192 trains between November 2023 and November 2024, an average of 22 per day and more than 9 per cent of its planned services.
Northern, which has been under public control since 2020, cancelled 74,561 services over the 12-month period, the equivalent of 204 trains per day.
CrossCountry is worst performing operator in Britain, having cancelled 8,534 trains in the past year, more than 10 per cent of its services.
Passengers have said they are being forced onto the roads by high levels of cancellations and called on the rail industry to tackle staff shortages and crumbling infrastructure to provide a more reliable service.
“The Government and rail industry need to invest in both the workforce and infrastructure and sort this out, so that passengers can choose the train with confidence.”
London stations Liverpool Street and Paddington will both be closed for several days after the last trains leave on Christmas Eve, while the main line from St Pancras to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield will shut for nine days.
Work on the West Coast Main Line will mean no services running through Crewe on 27 December and reduced services and longer journeys until 5 January.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has called on the firm to “get back round the table” with the RMT union to spare passengers further travel misery in the New Year.
She said: “What I want to see happen is for the leadership of Avanti West Coast, which is currently a privately owned train operating company, to get back round the table with the RMT to see what can be done to avoid action happening.”
But questions are mounting following the resignation of former Transport Secretary Louise Haigh and the performance of operators which are already under public control.
It will also be rebranded as ‘DfT Operator Limited’.
However critics say the poor reliability of firms such as Northern and LNER while under public control shows nationalisation will not solve deep-rooted problems.
How has your train operator performed?
Across Britain, operators cancelled 368,843 trains between November 2023 and November 2024 – around 5 per cent of 7.2 million services planned.
Here’s how the largest operators have performed:
1. CrossCountry – 23 trains cancelled per day, 10.1 per cent
2. Avanti West Coast – 22 trains per day, 9.4 cent
3. Northern – 204 trains per day, 9.1 per cent
4. Southwestern – 115 trains per day, 7.6 per cent
5. Govia Thameslink – 193 trains per day, 6.5 per cent
6. TfW – 61 trains per day, 6.4 per cent
7. LNER – 9 trains per day, 6.1 per cent
8. West Mids – 66 trains per day, 6.1 per cent
9. Great Western – 88 trains per day, 5.8 per cent
10. TPE – 15 trains per day, 5.2 per cent
11. Merseyrail – 27 trains per day, 4.9 per cent
12. East Mids – 22 trains per day, 4.8 per cent
13. London Overground – 66 trains per day, 4.5 per cent
14. Elizabeth line – 41 trains per day, 4.2 per cent
15. Southeastern – 50 trains per day, 3.3 per cent
16. Chiltern – 9 trains per day, 3 per cent
17. ScotRail – 47 trains per day, 2.5 per cent
18. c2c – 7 trains per day, 2.1 per cent
19. Greater Anglia – 25 trains per day, 2.1 per cent
The Government believed it had secured a breakthrough when it offered a new four-month deal to the RMT union last month, but it was rejected by members.
Passenger groups warn last-minute cancellations, especially on Sunday, will continue for “the foreseeable future” because of staffing issues.
Analysis by The i Paper found at least 16 of the 24 operators have had to cancel services due to a ‘shortage of train crew’ in 2024.
Before she stepped down, Haigh told MPs she wanted to tackled ‘outdated’ working practices and pledged to recruit more staff to give the Government more leverage.
Bus replacement journeys that still cost £90
A standard return ticket from Liverpool to London on Friday 27 December will cost £90.30.
Most of the available journeys on that day will involve a bus replacement service from Liverpool Lime Street to Stoke-on-Trent and then a train into Euston.
It will take at least 3 hours 16 minutes, around an hour longer than the usual travel time.
Spare a thought for anyone trying to travel between London and Norwich.
Most of the journeys on 27 December involve three changes and a bus replacement service through Essex with an estimated travel time of three hours and 12 minutes.
It costs £83.40 for a return ticket.
It’s a similar story for those trying to get from Bedford into London – the journey involve a bus replacement service to Milton Keynes and will take 1 hour 24 minutes.
A return ticket costs £40.60.
“The Government’s railway reorganisation plans will not solve this problem; they will merely funnel billions of pounds of taxpayer money into an ideological project to appease the unions.
Alexander defended the Government’s deal, saying: “Let me be clear about the difference between what was happening under the previous Conservative government, who had a scorched earth approach to industrial relations, and we saw strike after strike after strike across the whole of the network.
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “While we are not in the position we want to be in terms of overall performance, there has been a significant improvement in the latter part of 2024.
A spokesperson for CrossCountry said: “The last 12 months have brought a range of challenges to running trains on time; not least, the frequency and severity of named storms, which have taken place with the highest frequency and severity for almost 10 years.
“We continue to work with Network Rail and other industry partners to mitigate the impact of delay-causing events on customers, not only those caused by severe weather but also when trains have to slow down during repairs to ...
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